The invention relates to a process for dissecting slaughtered animals, in particular poultry in which process the animals are suspended from a conveyor system and moved past several treating stations where parts of the animals are cut off.
In the known process for dissecting slaughtered animals the cutting of the several treating stations was carried out by butchers who removed parts of the animals, for instance the wings of chickens, by hand. Since this known process, being substantially performed by hand, was an expensive one, it has been tried to find ways of conducting the process at least in part with the aid of machines. To this end, apparatus have been proposed in which parts of the animals are cut off with the aid of motor-driven knives.
The problem with such apparatus was that it proved impossible to cut off the animals' parts from the carcasses according to the so-called anatomical cut. In the anatomical cut, parts of the animals are severed without any damage being done to bony parts, that is to say, through the bursal ligaments of the articulation.
As the known process resulted in bony parts being damaged during the cutting, bone splinters were left in the meat, which is undesirable. In addition, the known process has the drawback that its permits only a limited rate of processing of the animals.